The Avast Endpoint Protection has been specifically designed to provide antivirus protection for computer networks to keep them free of viruses and other malware risks. It comes in following editions:

Avast Endpoint Protection (Basic) which provides standard protection based on Avast Pro Antivirus for small office/home office networks of up to 200 computers, with the exception of servers.

Avast Endpoint Protection Plus which provides enhanced protection based on Avast Internet Security for small and medium-sized business networks of up to 200 computers, with the exception of servers.

Avast Endpoint Protection Suite which provides standard protection based on Avast Pro Antivirus and Avast File Server Security for complex company networks, optimally between 5 and 1000 computers and/or servers in any combination.

Avast Endpoint Protection Suite Plus which provides maximum protection based on Avast Internet Security, Avast File Server Security and Avast Email Server Security for complex company networks of any size, optimally for up to 1000 computers and/or servers in any combination.

For each specific edition you can choose from two types of central administration with remote management capability, which allows you to discover new and unsecured machines on the company network, deploy and manage Avast Endpoint Protection clients (managed clients) and incremental updates on all your computers and/or servers to keep your network free of viruses and other malware, schedule scan jobs, receive real-time security alerts, reports and automatic notifications about the activity on your network. For simple and small networks up to 200 computers and/or servers is recommended to use Avast Small Office Administration, for complex computers and/or servers networks of any size use Avast Enterprise Administration.

Avast Endpoint Protection comes in four editions with the following differences:

Avast Endpoint Protection (Basic) provides standard protection with security features based on Avast Pro Antivirus (Antivirus, AntiSpyware, Anti-Phishing and Virtualization features) for small office/home office networks of up to 200 computers, but it has no server protection.

Avast Endpoint Protection Plus provides enhanced protection with security features based on Avast Internet Security (Antivirus, Firewall, Antispam, Anti-Spyware, Anti-Phishing and Virtualization features) for small and medium-sized business networks of up to 200 computers, but it has no server protection. In other words, Avast Endpoint Protection Suite is like Avast Endpoint Protection (Basic) with the additional safety layers of Antispam and Firewall.

Avast Endpoint Protection Suite provides standard protection for larger company networks, that is between 5 and 1000 computers and/or servers in any combination, with security features based on Avast Pro Antivirus (Antivirus, AntiSpyware, Anti-Phishing and Virtualization features) to protect your computers, and Avast File Server Security (Antivirus, AntiSpyware, Sandbox/Auto-Sandbox and MS SharePoint protection) to protect your servers. In other words, Avast Endpoint Protection Suite is like Avast Endpoint Protection (Basic), but in addition it also provides server protection based on Avast File Server Security (Antivirus, AntiSpyware, Sandbox/Auto-Sandbox and MS SharePoint protection).

Avast Endpoint Protection Suite Plus provides maximum protection for large company networks, ideal for up to 1000 computers and/or servers in any combination, with security features based on Avast Internet Security (Antivirus, Firewall, Antispam, Anti-Spyware, Anti-Phishing and Virtualization features) to protect your computers, and combination of Avast File Server Security with Avast Email Server Security (Antivirus, Antispam, AntiSpyware, Sandbox/Auto-Sandbox, MS SharePoint and MS Exchange protection) to protect your servers. In other words, Avast Endpoint Protection Suite Plus is like Avast Endpoint Protection Plus, but in addition, the server protection is also enhanced with the additional security features based on Avast Email Server Security (Antispam and MS Exchange protection).

Note:
For each specific edition you can choose from two types of central administration. For simple and small networks up to 200 computers and/or servers is recommended to use Avast Small Office Administration, for complex computers and/or servers networks of any size use Avast Enterprise Administration.

Avast Small Office Administration is a web-based console with remote management capability, which allows you to discover new and unsecured machines on the company network, centrally deploy and manage Avast Endpoint Protection clients (managed clients) and incremental updates on all your computers and/or servers to keep your network free of viruses and other malware, schedule scan jobs, receive real-time security alerts, reports and automatic notifications about the activity on your network. Avast Small Office Administration is suitable for small and simple computer networks with up to 200 computers and/or servers, and so it's simple to use and has only one-level grouping of Avast Endpoint Protection clients (managed clients).

Avast Enterprise Administration is a desktop console with remote management capability and dedicated server, which enables discovery of new and unsecured machines on the company network, unattended remote deployment and mangement of Avast Endpoint Protection clients (managed clients) and incremental updates on networked computers and/or servers, even in multiple domains, to keep them free of viruses and other malware, schedule on-demand scannig tasks, generate wide range of graphical and tabular reports, receive real-time customizable alerts automatic notifications about the activity on the company network. Avast Enterprise Administration is suitable for complex computers and/or servers networks of any size, and so it has hierarchical grouping of Avast Endpoint Protection clients (managed clients) in a tree structure, which can be based on, for example, the geographical or organizational structure of the network, and makes possible to assign appropriate administration access rights and policies separately for each group.

Avast Small Office Administration is suitable for small and simple computer networks with up to 200 computers and/or servers, and so it's simple to use and has only one-level grouping of Avast Endpoint Protection clients (managed clients). Avast Enterprise Administration is suitable for complex computers and/or servers networks of any size, and so it has hierarchical grouping of Avast Endpoint Protection clients (managed clients) in a tree structure, which can be based on, for example, the geographical or organizational structure of the network, and makes possible to assign appropriate administration access rights and policies separately for each group.

The Mirror is installed automatically during the installation of Avast Small Office Administration or Avast Enterprise Administration. It automatically receives updates from the AVAST update server and distributes them to all the Avast Endpoint Protection clients (managed clients) on your network to ensure they are always completely up to date.

The great advantage of using the Mirror to distribute updates in this way is that the updates need to be downloaded only once from the AVAST update server, thus saving you valuable bandwidth.

Although the Mirror is updated automatically, you can also update it manually to make sure that you have the very latest copy of the update server at any given moment.

Internet connection (to download and register the product, and for updates of the Mirror from the AVAST update server).

Domain network or Windows workgroup membership.

Valid and reachable SMTP Server.

Intel Pentium III compatible processor or above (depends on the requirements of used operating system version and other 3rd party software installed).

1 GB RAM or above (depends on the requirements of used operating system version and other 3rd party software installed).

900 MB of free hard disk space.

Optimally standard screen resolution not less than 1024 x 768 pixels.

Note:
Other 3rd party prerequisites will be installed during the setup by the installer if they are not present. These are the Microsoft .NET Framework 4, Microsoft Silverlight 5 and other dependencies like Microsoft Windows Installer, etc.

Free Microsoft SQL Server 2008 R2 Express (supplied as an optionally installable component with Avast Enterprise Administration) or full Microsoft SQL Server 2008 R2 (required for the replication service to support multiple Avast Enterprise Administration Servers in very complex networks with more than 1000 computers and/or servers in any combination).

Internet Explorer 6.x or higher.

Internet connection (to download and register the product, and for updates of the Mirror from the AVAST update server).

Domain network or Windows workgroup membership.

Valid and reachable SMTP Server.

Intel Pentium III compatible processor or above (depends on the requirements of used operating system version and other 3rd party software installed).

512 MB RAM or above (depends on the requirements of used operating system version and other 3rd party software installed).

For each specific edition of Avast Endpoint Protection you can choose between two types of central administration, i.e. Avast Small Office Administration for deployment on small and simple computer networks, and Avast Enterprise Administration for deployment on complex networks of any size, or if necessary, you can download only standalone unmanaged client for individual installation, which can be connected to the central administration later.

Existing licenses for Avast Business Protection can be used for upgrade to Avast Endpoint Protection while keeping similar features and functions. If you are currently using:

Avast Business Protection you can upgrade to Avast Endpoint Protection Suite.

Avast Business Protection Plus you can upgrade to Avast Endpoint Protection Suite Plus.

For each upgrade you can choose from two types of central administration:

Avast Small Office Administration - easily upgrades your current version of Avast Administration Console to the latest Avast Small Office Administration, also automatically upgrades the Mirror as well as managed clients on your computer network, and keep your existing settings in place. The table below will help you to determine which setup file needs to be used for each specific edition in order to proceed with the upgrade:

Avast Enterprise Administration - allows you to complete replace Avast Administration Console by Avast Enterprise Administration suitable for complex computers and/or servers networks of any size. But at first you have to manually remove Avast Administration Console and managed clients from your computer network, so all your existing settings will be lost. The table below will help you to determine which setup file needs to be used for each specific edition in order to proceed with the upgrade:

In order to use Avast Endpoint Protection for purchased license period, you have to insert the license file into Avast Small Office Administration or Avast Enterprise Administration, depending on which you have chosen to use. For detailed step-by-step instructions please read the following articles:

The default password for Administrator account in Avast Enterprise Administration is admin and once you successfully logged in for the first time you have started the Avast Enterprise Administration, it is recommended to change the default password to a new one using the EAS Maintenance from the 'Start' menu.

The Avast Small Office Administration is accessible on the links displayed in the last step when the installation was successfully completed, so you can open it in your web browser. Let's assume soaserver.local is DNS qualified host name of the target server. Avast Small Office Administration should be then accessed via these links:

Standard unencrypted connection:

http://soaserver.local:8731

Secure encrypted connection:

https://soaserver.local:8732

Please use the link for Secure encrypted connection while accessing Avast Small Office Administration from WAN (e.g. the Internet) or from untrusted LAN. Otherwise, for the access from trusted LAN or from the hosting server itself, you can use the link for Standard unencrypted connection.

Domain and Windows workgroup represent different methods for organizing computers in networks. The main difference among them is how the computers and other resources on the networks are managed.

In a Domain network:

One or more computers are servers. Network administrators use servers to control the security and permissions for all computers on the domain. This makes it easy to make changes because the changes are automatically made to all computers. Domain users must provide a password or other credentials each time they access the domain.

If you have a user account on the domain, you can log on to any computer on the domain without needing an account on that computer.

Without domain administrator privileges you can make only limited changes to a computer's settings because network administrators often want to ensure consistency among computers.

There can be effectively managed a thousands of computers in a domain.

The computers can be on different local networks.

In a Windows workgroup:

All computers are peers; no computer has control over another computer.

Each computer has a set of user accounts. To log on to any computer in the workgroup, you must have an account on that computer.